


Good Old-Fashioned (Lover Boy)

by asthmaticjedi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Language, Post-Season/Series 03, discussion of suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 06:23:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14207046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asthmaticjedi/pseuds/asthmaticjedi
Summary: After the battle at Naxzela, Keith pays a visit to the castle of Lions and learns a few things.





	Good Old-Fashioned (Lover Boy)

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from and loosely inspired by Queen's "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"

Kolivan lets him stop by the Castle of Lions, but only for a few hours. He probably wouldn’t have let Keith visit, period, but Keith probably has a desperate look in his eyes (a nearly successful suicide attack does that to you, strangely) that made Kolivan relent. 

Talking would be good, Keith reasons, his pace quickening as he reaches the main hangar. Even if Shiro brushes him off this time, Allura would probably feel vindicated to hear that Keith wasn’t doing super hot with the Blade. Maybe if he has time, Keith could catch up with...

“Hey, man.” Matt scratches the back of his head and doesn’t meet Keith’s eyes. 

“Hey.” Silence. Keith fidgeted with the tip of his glove. “So, uh, do you know if… _when_ everyone is getting back? Just want to make the most out of my time.” 

“See, here’s the thing,” Matt sighed. “The whole thing with Lotor kinda took us by surprise, and Shiro wants to restrain and interrogate him before he has a chance to do anything funny…”

“Oh.” Disappointment sinks low in Keith’s chest, but he presses on anyways. “I’ll be fast, then.” 

Matt raises an eyebrow but points him in the general direction of the castle brig, and Keith runs with his heart in his throat. He skids around a corner and sees Allura and Shiro, deep in discussion. Allura’s usually immaculate hair is in disarray, like she’s been running her fingers through it, and Shiro looks like he’s aged ten years since Keith last saw him. 

“Shiro,” Keith breathes, because it’s been so long since he’s seen his sort-of brother, and Keith’s willing to put aside the weird tension between them if it meant that Shiro would give him a hug and murmur that everything would be okay. 

“Keith?” Shiro looks up before exchanging a look with Allura. He nods and gently pushes her in a nearby room before striding over to Keith. “We thought you went back with the Blade.”

“I wanted to stop by and see how everyone’s doing,” Keith mutters, feeling strangely vulnerable. “Catch up before I’m sent off to another mission.” 

Shiro sighs and pinches his nose bridge. “Now’s not a good time, Keith. We have no clue what we’re dealing with, because there’s no way that Lotor is here to lend a helping hand to the Resistance, not after what he’s done to us. You of all people should know.”

“Right.” Deep down, Keith expected this response, but the rejection still stings. 

“You should go back to the Blade,” Shiro says, his voice firm. “They need you more than we do now. The sooner we can end this, the better.” 

Keith nods and takes a step back. “I… guess I’ll see you around, then.” 

Shiro nods and pulls Keith into a hesitant hug. “I’m glad to see that you’re doing okay,” Shiro murmurs before disappearing in the same room Allura went into. 

Just like that, something breaks in Keith, and he slumps against the hallway wall. At this point, he doesn’t even care to stifle a sob coming out of his throat as he wonders how humiliating it would be to return to the Blade a few minutes after practically begging to visit his friends. 

“Keith?” 

Keith’s head snaps up at the sound of a soft voice and sure footsteps. A smile involuntarily spreads on his face. “Lance?” 

Lance lets out a shaky laugh and wraps his arms around Keith. “It’s great to see you, man,” he says, his voice muffled by Keith’s shoulder. 

“It’s good to see you, too,” Keith half-sobs. He doesn’t care that he clings to Lance a little tighter than he usually prefers to cling to, well, pretty much everybody. Lance is the first to let go, and gives Keith a once-over.

“So, what’s a boy like you doing in a place like this?” Lance accentuates the question with a wink. Keith’s too tired to fight or feel embarrassed by the flush on his face.

“I heard what went down Naxzela’s surface,” Keith says quietly. “Just wanted to make sure you all are doing okay.”

Lance laughs and gives Keith an affectionate punch on the shoulder. “Look at you, mother-henning us, even after ditching us for the Blade,” he teases. Lance gestures to himself. “Well, as you can see, your favorite and the most important paladin is doing a-okay. Have you checked up with Shiro yet?”

“He’s busy.” Keith doesn’t even bother to keep the bitterness from his voice. Lance gives him a sympathetic squeeze.

“How’re _you_ doing? Based on what I heard from the comms, it sounded like you were about to do something crazy to take down that Galra ship’s defenses.” 

“Nothing,” Keith says a little too quickly. 

“Sure, dude.” Lance gives him a disbelieving look. “I’m sure Matt will tell me the same thing when I ask him right now.” 

Keith groans and grabs at his wrist. “Fine, you win.” Lance looks at him expectantly, and Keith braces himself for the oncoming storm. “Itriedtobreaktheforcefieldwithmyship.” 

Lance goes quiet, and the easy grin slides off his face before he laughs forcefully. “You mean with your guns or freaky Galra knife-slash-sword, right?” 

“You know what I mean.” 

“Oh, Keith.” Lance pulls Keith into another hug and Keith melts into it. “Please tell me you’re coming back.”

Keith shakes his head and clings to Lance tighter. “I have to go back to the Blade in three hours, give or take.” 

“Well then.” Lance linked arm with Keith’s. “In the next three hours, I’ll take you on the best friend date ever,” he promises.

“Friend date? I didn’t realize we were at that point yet,” Keith teases weakly. 

“Dick,” Lance laughs. “Hunk and Pidge are busy geeking over the gravity machine that trapped us on Naxzela with Matt, so it’ll be just us.” 

“Sounds good.” Something flutters in Keith’s chest, and he was more than content to let Lance drag him around the castle, humming cheerfully as he rummaged around the castle. 

“Don’t look,” Lance orders, and Keith cannot defy him, even if he wanted to. 

“You know, if we were doing this the first few weeks we met, I’d be terrified,” Keith jokes as he follows Lance to the lion’s hangars.

“Nah, Red would kill me,” Lance says lightly, stopping in front of the Red Lion. “Actually, I think if I tried to pull that now, Red would still kill me. She misses you, you know.” 

“I do too,” Keith whispers. It still feels strange, standing in front of Red and not having that connection thrumming through his head. 

“She’s yours whenever you’re ready to go back, you know.” Keith hates the resignation in Lance’s voice. 

“We’re not having this conversation again,” Keith says flatly. “I’m staying with the Blade, Shiro’s piloting Black, and you’re piloting Blue.”

Lance mimes zipping his mouth shut and pulls Keith into Red’s cockpit. He’s quiet as he pulls Red out of the castle and towards a nearby planet, choosing a small clearing next to a sunny lake to land on. They climb out of Red and take in the serene sight. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” 

Keith glances at the boy next to him and silently admires the way the light reflecting off the lake makes Lance’s eyes and smile, making him look almost ethereal. “Yeah.” 

“C’mon.” Lance tugs on Keith’s arm towards the shore with a blanket and box in hand. “Coran was going to take us here for a picnic once we finished things up on Naxzela, but…” 

“Lotor?” Keith supplies. 

“Lotor,” Lance agrees. “But hey! We get some quality bonding time together! We can make a new bonding moment since the first one didn’t count!”

“I still don’t believe you forgot it,” Keith mutters. Lance winks and pinches Keith’s cheek. 

“I woke up from a head injury-induced coma to save the day, cut me some slack.” Lance places drapes the blanket on the ground and sits, patting the space next to him. Keith obliges and digs through the box Lance brought out with him. 

“What kind of food did you bring?” he asks, squinting at the space-tupperware filled with things that didn’t look like goo.

“Hunk’s been developing new recipes with the goo machine,” Lance says proudly. “Just as I was about to get use to the goo, too. Try it, it’s amazing!” 

Keith opens the box and hesitantly takes a bite. Lance is right, it _is_ amazing (not that he could ever doubt him for a second). “Damn.” 

“Ten bucks the Blade doesn’t feed you nearly as well as Hunk can.” Lance nudges Keith and winks. 

“Nah,” Keith admits. “They -- _we’re_ a secret organization that’s fighting against a empire that existed for thousands of years. We don’t really have time to kick back and let loose.” 

“I figured,” Lance snorts. 

They fall into companionable silence, and Keith takes the time to savor Hunk’s cooking. He privately wonders if he can smuggle food to the Blade’s base (Keith figures Kolivan wouldn’t approve of outside food). It _does_ sound like the rest of the Voltron team miss him and Keith is willing to bet that Hunk would be more than happy to send him off with a healthy assortment of treats.

“How’re Hunk and Pidge doing?” Keith asks. He’d rather not disrupt the quiet swishing of the water and squawks of the local wildlife, but they are Keith’s friends and he does care about them.

Lance brightens even more. “They’ve been doing great! Pidge finally found their brother, as you can tell, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Hunk’s been experimenting with the goo machine, and he’s been messing around with his bayard, he thinks he’s close to figuring out the mechanism behind unlocking and accessing different forms, and…” 

Keith tilts his head and examines him from this angle. It’s a good look, Keith thinks absently, Lance in his scratched and worn Blue Paladin armor, expression a little tired from battle but still content to see another planet liberated from the Galra with his friends safe and sound. Probably his best one. It’s pretty damn similar to the expression Lance gave him after Sendak’s attack on the castle. 

“...and yeah, Coran did wear us down pretty fast with the constant shows while he was infected with that weird brain worm thing, but like Shiro said, it _was_ really effective in boosting support for the coalition, and it was really fun to have this whole character to play,” Lance continues. He stops and narrows his eyes at Keith. “You weren’t listening at all, were you?” 

“I was!” Keith says defensively. “Coran making you guys do a bunch of shows, brain worm, characters, see?” 

Lance eyes him suspiciously but nods. “Yeah, those shows were fun but really weird, man. Allura plays you, you know.” 

“ _Me?_ ” Apart from Shiro, Allura is probably the least like him. “How did that turn out?” 

“Pidge and I had her listen to a _lot_ of MCR and Good Charlotte,” Lance says with a smirk. “You know, to get in character.” 

“Asshole,” Keith laughs. “What was your whole ‘character’ like?” 

“Oh.” Lance snorts and shoots (what Keith assumed) Keith his best flirty smirk. “ _I_ played the part of _Lover-boy Lance._ ” 

Keith considers it for a moment and can’t suppress the small bubble of laughter. “Lover-boy Lance, huh?” 

“Yup. It was fun, at first. I finally got to put my aerial silks training to good use,” he preens. Keith huffs out a laugh and privately wishes he was there to see that. 

“But?” Keith prompts.

“It got exhausting.” Lance shrugs. “Between the constant shows and getting mobbed by a bunch of young aliens, I needed my beauty sleep, you know.” 

“I thought you’d love the attention.”

“The attention was fun, but it was a lot to take in all at once,” Lance admits. 

“I guess.” Keith thinks about it again. “Lover-boy Lance, huh? Wonder where Coran got that from,” he teases. 

“Shut up,” Lance mutters. “I’ve been toning it down lately.” 

“Really.” Keith raises an eyebrow. “Lance, not hitting on anything moving and vaguely feminine, especially Allura?”

“Too busy focusing on helping Shiro out and saving the universe,” Lance says. “And…” 

“And?”

Lance worries his bottom lip before ducking his head and blushing like a madman. “Hard to flirt when you’re already crushing on someone.” 

“Oh.” Disappointment courses through Keith’s chest, but he forces a smile on his face. “Someone I know?” 

“No comment.” So, someone Keith knows, most likely. “They’re probably not interested anyways.” 

Keith feels indignant. Who wouldn’t be interested in Lance, with his effortless smile and easy charm? 

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I’d be pretty charmed if I were them.” Keith is lying. He’s so damned charmed right now, and this wasn’t Lance at full force. Then again, Keith is biased. Lance still looks sad, so Keith impulsively rests his head on Lance’s shoulder.

“Yeah?” Lance says hopefully. Much to Keith’s surprise (and pleasure). Lance rests his head on top of Keith’s. 

“Oh.” Keith feels himself turn red. “Um. Me?” 

“Only if you’re comfortable with, you know, all of that,” Lance starts babbling. “If you’re not, I can get over it and not bother you with that anymore. This isn’t an actual date-date, I did actually mean it when I just wanted to spend time with you. Platonically. Unless you don’t want that. Anyways, I feel like it’s time for you to go back to the Blade and for me to pilot Red and I’m definitely not going to lock myself in a cryo-pod until my brain can get the memo that we shouldn’t be crushing over teammates, much less my _fucking ex-team leader_ and…” 

“Lance.” Keith hears himself say. “Stop talking and kiss me.” 

A bright red flush spreads over Lance’s face. “Um. What? I mean...” 

Keith rolls his eyes and pulls at Lance’s armor, pressing a clumsy kiss on Lance. Lance immediately responds in kind, gently pulling on the hood of Keith’s Blade uniform to bring Keith closer to him. 

“So,” Lance breathes after they break apart. “I don’t suppose that means you’re coming back to us for good.” 

“I meant what I said,” Keith whispers. “The team is better of without me.” 

“I hope it’s not because of that conversation we had a while back. I really am okay with taking a backseat if that’s best for the team.” 

“It’s my decision,” Keith says firmly. “You’re not going to change my mind.” 

Lance sighs. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I could say to make you stop doing anything rash, like crashing your ship into a Galra cruiser’s force field. Seriously man, what were you thinking?” 

“I wasn’t,” Keith admits. “I just remember hearing you guys panicking because you were trapped on Naxzela’s surface and how you all might not have been there if it was _me_ piloting Black instead of Shiro because I’d never doubt your decisions and dammit Lance, I _just had to do something and by the time I realized what I was doing I couldn’t back out and…”_

_“Oh, Keith,” Lance soothes, stroking Keith’s hair and pulling him into a (somewhat awkward) side hug. Keith shudders into the shoulder of Lance’s paladin armor and lets Lance fuss over him for a little bit. “Do you think you can promise me that you’ll at least try to think things through in later missions?”_

_Keith considers it for a moment. “Maybe. I’ll… I’ll do my best. I do have more to come back to, after all,” he tries to joke._

_A beautiful smile spreads over Lance’s face, and Keith temporarily forgets how to breathe. “Thank you,” Lance says simply, and presses a feather-light kiss on his forehead._

_Keith’s not good at words, so he simply gives Lance another kiss and savors the moment of serenity as best as he could._

**Author's Note:**

> first klance fic *screams internally*
> 
> main: prancingpterodactyls  
> writing: asthmaticjedi


End file.
